Sara
“Why are we the ones who have to walk?”
Knowing Mia wasn’t just complaining on her own behalf eased the patience that Sara was forcing herself to show at this moment. The two of them had left the capitol behind that very morning, following a night in the Serene temple. Clint was supposed to be with them, but he had changed his mind at the last minute and went with Maya to go look for Seth. This left Mia and Sara alone to continue their trek to Foldo on foot while Clint took their only conveyance with him. Neither of the women were in perfect health after their confrontation with Anthony Clark the previous day, nor had they established a rhythm of conversation that could be considered pleasant.
All told, neither Sara nor Mia was having a pleasant journey, even as they approached the edge of the valley which marked their next goal. Even all of the splendor of Flora Field, which its seemingly endless expanse of various flowers, failed to lift the young acolyte’s spirits. The multi-colored land before them should have been a real-life sample of Serenity’s beauteous touch, but escaping death in the midst of the Summer Festival had left her in a more Chaotic mood. No one ever said this was going to be easy!
“Well, it’s only fair, I think,” Sara answered steadily. “Seth was the one who rented the sky rug, so it was always his to use. Besides that, from what we’ve been told by Lady Midas, Seth may not be reaching our meeting place under his own power.
“If that’s the case, why not go with him?” Mia snapped impatiently. “I’ve heard of this Demon Knight and I’m not even confident that all four of the others will be enough to finish him off. So why are you guys always splitting up?”
“We each have our own paths to walk,” Sara replied with a glance at the spear that jutted out from behind her left shoulder. “Seth’s strength, Clint’s wisdom, and my protection are pieces of a larger puzzle, but they are also individual qualities. We must trust in these qualities, wherever they take us and have faith that it will all lead to the ends we need.”
“And I suppose my piece of the puzzle would be motivating you with fear to keep your thoughts straight enough that you can answer answer a simple question?” Mia hissed testily.
“It doesn’t matter that we aren’t together,” Sara said, holding tightly to her patience. “Seth had no say in where he was going, and Clint didn’t believe that leaving him and the others to fend for themselves was best. For our part, there is another champion of Maula in our path who needs our attention. That’s just the way it is.”
They began to make their way into the field of flowers, many of which rested at the end of stems that were taller than they were. Once they crossed into this magical place, a peaceful calm came over them. Serenity’s power was especially strong here, gripping them with a strong disinclination towards violent thoughts. Sara looked over to Mia with a grin, eager to see how she would handle being pacified.
“Well, it does no good to complain about it,” Mia grumbled, her expression only a shadow of the annoyance she felt before. “I just wish we had been a little smarter about this, you know?”
Sara gave a careless shrug as they began to lose sight of the plains behind them. “I wouldn’t worry. Our destination lies at the other end of this field and we’re not exactly in danger here.”
“Maybe that’s why we needed to split up,” Mia uttered in a deadpan tone. “I haven’t felt an ounce of aggression since I walked into this place. Something tells me that spellwarrior would be useless without that.”
Sara nodded. “Perhaps. I don’t know Seth all that well, but Clint once told me that his family bloodline is about to die out. It seems that the Midases were a warrior clan known for always rushing headfirst into danger. A place like this would only bore him.”
Suddenly a foreign, female-sounding voice piped up. “It didn’t the last time he visited!”
The champions both froze in their tracks at the same time and urgently scanned for the source of the voice. An impish giggle ensued when both had turned on the spot at least twice each.
“I’m a little closer than that!”
“Where are you?” Sara called out.
“Fuck that! Who are you?” Mia interjected.
“Here!” the voice called out, drawing their attention to a sunflower swaying on the ground in their path.
The flower began to quiver excitedly as it grew ever taller. It’s stem began to widen and take on a pale, fleshy color while its petals began to stretch into long fibers and its head began to expand and reform into the shape of a human face before their eyes. Sara grinned as the flower completed its transformation into a woman close to her in age with flowing brown hair who wore a golden sun dress. Such a chance encounter was only to be expected in this valley, but she was excited nonetheless to finally meet a fey creature. Such was a gift that every Serene cleric longed for, but few ever realized.
“You’re a floral sprite!” Sara exclaimed, for lack of a more auspicious reply to the creature’s entrance.
“Last time I checked,” the sprite said with a grin as she sauntered over to Sara.
“You know Seth, right?” Sara muttered uncomfortably as the strange woman closed the space between them alarmingly quickly.
“We used to go out at the Academy,” the fey said with a smirk, “But who cares about him? He’s long gone!”
“We do!” Mia snapped. “We’re in the middle of something important together! If you aren’t here to help us, you should go back to sucking nutrients out of the ground and leave us alone!”
“How rude!” the fey replied as she pouted to Mia. “I don’t go wandering through your home and snap at you for being a good host, so why would you do that to me?”
“Forget her,” Sara said without looking at the others. She was talking to both of them at the same time, but didn’t want to say so. Figuring that she couldn’t afford to alienate the locals, she added. “You said you went to Hem Academy. Does that mean you’re a spellwarrior?”
Mia sighed as the fey sidled up to Sara and draped an arm over her shoulder. “I am! The first of my kind, no less! The elder bloom thought that’d be the easiest way to get the spellwarriors to pay any attention to this settlement. There’s little call for warriors here, but the magic I’ve learned there has helped to keep everyone safe!”
“So, you defend the other floral sprites?” Sara asked.
“I defend all of the fey that live here. Me and my friend Bear,” the sprite said with a smile. “Lady Millie Flora, at your service.”
“If you don’t know where we can find any champions of Maula, your services don’t matter to us,” Mia growled. “We already have a spellwarrior in the group.”
Millie began to look around while humming to herself. “I don’t know anything about Maula. She has servants in the fey community, but they aren’t welcome here.”
“You mean maulans?”
Millie nodded. “I found a pair of them lurking about earlier and threw them out. Neither of them seemed like champions to me, stalking some woman.”
Sara’s heart skipped a beat. “What about that woman? Did you talk to her?”
Millie sighed and locked eyes with Sara. “Why should we talk about her? She’s not much friendlier than your… friend, here, but I’m pretty sure she’s harmless!”
Sara tried to step away from the spellwarrior, but she moved with her. In her pacified state, even the thought of pushing her away failed to occur to her. With a rueful shake of her head, she said, “We’re here to find someone who serves Maula, who a higher-ranked member of your order confirmed is here. Has this woman been here for a long time?”
“About a week,” Millie said as she released the acolyte with a frown. “I know where she is now. I’ll take you to her.”
The two champions followed their new spellwarrior escort deeper into the thicket of flowers and walked in relative silence for several minutes. Millie constantly shot glances back toward Sara as they walked, which she pretended not to notice. Finally, Millie stopped in her tracks and held a hand up to halt the others.
“She’s just ahead,” she whispered, although neither champion could see anyone else through the flowers. “If you need anything else from yours truly, don’t hesitate to ask the sunflowers! They’re all connected to me, so I’ll be able to come running eventually!”
Before either of the women could respond, the sprite vanished.
“Let’s get this over with,” Mia grumbled as she raised a hand to part their way through the thicket ahead.
Sara would follow her into a wide clearing which enclosed a pond of the clearest water. On the opposite side of the water sat a woman with her back to them. She was adorned in the green robes of a Serene acolyte and even had the same hair color as Sara. She might have been convinced that she was looking at herself if the woman on the other side had longer hair. The champions circled the pond as quietly as they could. By the time she reached the woman, however, she clearly already knew they were there.
“If you require water, you should take some and keep moving,” she said without looking up. “I came here to be alone and it would be better for all of us if I stayed that way.”
“Can’t do it,” Mia said in voice that haphazardly blended calmness with her usual hostile drawl. “We’re looking for someone with a connection to Maula. So why are the maulans so interested in you?”
The woman suddenly looked up at them with a note of panic in her expression. “Maulans, here?”
Sara studied the fellow cleric appraisingly. She noticed for the first time that she was talking to an oni, like Seth’s mother. This oni looked nothing like a servant of Maula, but the mere mention of the fey who serve the Death Goddess seemed to genuinely terrify her.
“Don’t worry,” Sara said soothingly. “The maulans are gone. The local peacekeeper ejected them.”
The other acolyte shook her head and sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I assumed they couldn’t get in here. If they could, nothing’s going to stop them from trying again in less manageable numbers.”
“Why would they be after you?” Sara asked with a frown.
“They’re not here for me, but Adaling,” the woman said as she pushed herself to her feet. “She’s a spirit that has haunted me my whole life at Maula’s command.”
Mia narrowed her eyes at the priestess’ sudden movement. “That sounds like what we’re after too! Who are you to be hated by Maula so much?”
“My name is Adamora Maloran,” the priestess said as she turned to the champions. “I am a descendant of both Artix Maloran and Lady Orion.”
Sara’s eyes widened with this proclamation. Lady Orion was the third of the champions who helped to defeat Maula and stop her Wave of Death and Artix Maloran was the Restan prince who convinced her to renounce her previous allegiance to the Death Goddess. Maula had declared at the time that Orion would someday pay a terrible price for this betrayal. Could it be that her rage was passed on to their descendants?
“You seem to understand the significance of my ancestry,” Adamora groaned with a grave expression. “For the crime of being descended from someone with the audacity to betray a deity, my cousin and I have been cursed to have our bodies inhabited by the spirits of two of her most loyal followers from the past. I call mine Adaling, and she’s a very cruel witch.”
“It sounds like you should be locked up,” Mia said with a roll of her eyes. “At least, if you want to avoid any unfortunate events that you’ll absolutely be held responsible for.”
“That is why I came here,” Adamora said with a bold glare on her face. “Maintaining control over the spirit is no easy feat, but at least here, I know Adaling can’t hurt anybody.”
“We were told that the champion of Maula that could be found here would be in possession of something we need to return her to Fadal,” Sara replied with a serious expression.
This seemed to startle the other priestess. “Maula has returned to Comalan?”
Sara nodded gravely. “She’s here, and we need to follow in the path of the Champions--your ancestors--and forge the Storm of Mercy.”
Adamora’s eyes were set on the ground as she considered this. Finally, she whispered. “You’re looking for the Chains of Orion!”
“Is everyone in the clergy a history nerd?” Mia quipped.
Sara nodded. “The spellwarriors are convinced that we would find one of them here and the other further north.”
“I can’t give it to you, because I know nothing about possessing the chains,” Adamora said with a frown. “Adaling could have it, but the only way to know for sure would be to confront her yourself.”
“In that case, you need to let her out,” Sara said firmly. “We can’t stop Maula without those chains!”
“How bad can it be?” the priestess muttered as she sat back down. “It’s not like she can hurt anyone! Just be careful! This is my body too!”
The champions watched in silence as the woman stood back up painfully slowly. Her face now appeared slightly different. Where she once saw someone who was gentle, but exhausted, she now saw an expression of blood-curdling glee.
“Wow! I can’t believe my fortune! It has been years since I have assumed control so.. easily!”
“You’re here only because we allow it!” Mia snarled. “Now hand over that chain and fuck off!”
The woman who was now clearly Adaling smirked. “So you say! I suppose I should be so grateful, but I’ve been asked to hold onto it by someone for whom I hold much more esteem than you!”
Sara shook her head slowly and replied. “You can be as stubborn as you like. The magic in this area has locked us into a stalemate. You can’t harm us any more than we can harm you!”
Adaling laughed mirthlessly and said, “Sure, I can’t harm you, but that doesn’t mean I am completely powerless!”
Sara saw a familiar look in the witch’s eyes; one she had seen plenty of times in her reflection as she practiced her magic by the pools of Blackstone Monastery. Surely an evil witch couldn’t use the power of the gods against us just because she inhabits the body of one of our own!
“Sl--” she cried out, but she was interrupted by Adaling, who had been much quicker with her incantation.
“Sleep.”
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